Staff focus
Sylvia de Mars
Dr Sylvia de Mars
Sylvia started her academic journey with a doctorate degree in EU public procurement law from the University of Nottingham. In addition to working as Reader at Newcastle Law School, Sylvia also lends her expertise to various public bodies, most recent one being the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
Sylvia de Mars joined Newcastle Law School in 2010, following a PhD in EU public procurement law from the University of Nottingham. In the years since 2010, she has broadened her areas of interest to the point where she now writes about a range of transnational public law issues – still with a significant focus on how EU law (both generally and within the Member States) tackles different aspects of public law, but also considering, to use a recent example, the rights of pregnant student-athletes at government-funded US universities. Her interests are formed by a combination of curiosity and timeliness: a single judgment by a court like the CJEU or a public matter that makes headline news has resulted in many of her recent publications, with Brexit (and its effect on Northern Ireland) as the leading example of a ‘current issue’ that resulted in years of research.
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A lot of this research has a direct bearing not only on what she teaches – unsurprisingly, EU law – but also how she teaches it. She is currently working up the second edition of her EU Law and the UK textbook, which tackles EU law from the perspective of a UK undergraduate wondering why they are (still) learning about EU law – and addresses both how EU law works, and how Brexit has changed the UK’s relationship with EU law. Her grasp of public law in a range of jurisdictions has also led to further teaching adventures: she has collaborated on a very popular (but currently sadly unworkable, in light of staffing commitments) US constitutional law module for the LLB, and currently teaches comparative approaches to the regulation of medical devices on an MSc in Engineering. In the next few years, she will be teaching aspects of comparative or transnational constitutionalism on the Law School’s upcoming Global Legal Studies degree, which will undoubtedly also help her to find new interesting similarities and differences to explore in research projects.
Outside of her work at the Law School, Sylvia worked for the House of Commons Library on a part-time basis for two years (2018-2020) and has given very regular evidence to both Commons and Lords Select Committees in light of her expertise on Brexit. Similarly, she has also provided consultancy for various public bodies (like the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission) on problems stemming from Brexit. Her next big ‘project’, which she hopes to get started on in 2024, is to explore the (mis)use of sovereignty in UK political discourse, and how it results in executive dominance rather than parliamentary sovereignty as the mainstay of the UK’s constitutional setup.
